One of my fondest fantasy baseball memories was back in 1998 when I traded for Randy Johnson when he was struggling. I don't even remember the player I traded, but Unit was so bad that his owner basically gave him away for nothing. He was 7-8 and his ERA was 5.07 (I looked up the Game Logs, didn't have those committed to memory -- I just remember the sub-.500 record and ERA over 5.00). Anyway, he threw back to back CG shutouts:

9 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 15 K9 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 11 K

I remember just KNOWING he'd come around. I was young and new to the game and he was my first "buy low" ever. His owner was pretty ticked -- but then I got THIS split after he was traded to Houston:

That year Unit threw 6 shutouts, I got all of 'em. The man was literally UNHITTABLE after I obtained him. I'll never forget riding him to a title. I can't say I remember the rest of the team though. ARod, and IRod come to mind. I had some pretty good pitchers too.

I'v been playing Sportsline's H2H Pts leage for a long long time now.. Back when Johnson has those nasty seasons, it was almost impossible to beat your opponent. ESPECIALLY when he made his 2 start weeks. A nice week includes around 300-350 pts.. Johnson's 2 start weeks, he could easily throw up a 70 spot. That's pretty hard to compete against.

I was playing for the championship one of those yrs (I THINK 99?), and he has Johnson going on Sunday night while I was 38 pts up. Needless to say he went on to pitch a CG SO with like 18K's, and I lost. IMO, he's the all time Fantasy Ace.

HasteTheDay wrote:I'v been playing Sportsline's H2H Pts leage for a long long time now.. Back when Johnson has those nasty seasons, it was almost impossible to beat your opponent. ESPECIALLY when he made his 2 start weeks. A nice week includes around 300-350 pts.. Johnson's 2 start weeks, he could easily throw up a 70 spot. That's pretty hard to compete against.

I was playing for the championship one of those yrs (I THINK 99?), and he has Johnson going on Sunday night while I was 38 pts up. Needless to say he went on to pitch a CG SO with like 18K's, and I lost. IMO, he's the all time Fantasy Ace.

I agree. When Unit was at his best (in his best seasons) he was the #1 pitcher. He always slid a little farther than he should too because of age. By that I mean, sometimes you could get him in the late first or early second.

Randy Johnson was my first ever pick in fantasy baseball when I started in 2004. Because he is/was my favourite player and I didn't know what i was doing.That 16-14 season was half awesome and half frustrating. I remember they always interviewed him in the Yahoo recaps and it was....... (after a 1-0 or 2-1 loss)

Yes, yes it does. Someone get me my hearing aid, Murder She Wrote is starting.

Yes doctor, I am sick.Sick of those who are spineless.Sick of those who feel self-entitled.Sick of those who are hypocrites.Yes doctor, an army is forming.Yes doctor, there will be a war.Yes doctor, there will be blood.....

No doubt. RJ was the man back in the mid 90s to maybe 2 years ago. But it seems like 5-10 years ago pitchers stayed dominant longer. How many truly dominant pitchers are there today who have sustained greatness and been legit Cy Young contenders for 4 or more years in a row? Outside of Johan, nobody. Maybe you could throw Peavy in there, but he never won enough, outside of last year to be great. Webb? Close, but not dominant. Good, not dominant. He's only had an ERA under 3.00 once and that was his rookie year in 2003. Never had 200+ Ks. Never had a WHIP below 1.10.

I thought Oswalt and Zito were going to take the mantle after Pedro, Unit, Clemens, Maddux, but they failed too. Schmidt and Carpenter were in contention, but got injured, and quite frankly were never dominant. I thought Prior was going to pick it up after Oswalt and Zito, but he got injured and has never been the same.

Who's left? CC Sabathia, Lackey, Beckett, Bedard, Verlander? They couldn't hold Curt Schilling's jock and he never won a Cy Young. In 1997, Schilling had 17 wins, 319 K, 2.97 ERA and 1.04 WHIP. And that was on nearly a 100 loss team. For his troubles, he finished 4th in the Cy Young voting.

You could probably name between 6-8 pitchers who pitched at the peak of the steroid era, say from 1996-2005, who I'd rather have than any pitcher, save Johan. Pedro, Unit, Clemens, Maddux, Schilling, Kevin Brown are easy. David Cone, John Smoltz, Glavine.